Of course, I'd rather not harp on the negative attributes of this lazy-man's vehicle. The scooter could present time- and cost-saving opportunities as well. Amazon.com
AMZN, +0.17%
plans on testing three of them in one warehouse beginning in January. And it's not because Amazon.com or CEO Jeff Bezos invested in this invention. Contrary to some reports, neither has. It's a matter of efficiency: it beats walking through 800,000 square feet of warehouse space.

I'm all for efficiency and the creative effort to produce it. But there are other examples of creative, ingenious, hard-to-swallow cost-saving initiatives this year. More intriguing (for non-distressed-debt investors, anyway) are the few creative restructurings, especially the ones infusing life into walking corporate corpses.

Creative turnaround

Take Critical Path
CPTH
a stock that traded as low as 24 cents - some $18 million in market cap -- at the start of September. Here was a company seemingly left for dead.

Yet through an infusion of creative financing, the stock touched $3.05 by early November, a 1,170 percent return in two months.

"It was one of the most creative financing deals I've been involved with," said Bill Ford of General Atlantic Partners, a private-equity firm with $4 billion in available investment capital and investments in 70 portfolio companies. GA invested $35 million in Critical Path this past November. "We're really proud of this. In one swoop, we gave the company a boost in capital position and wiped out its debt."

If you haven't heard of Ford, it's not a surprise. He tends to shy away from media. For some background, Ford took the lead when GA invested in Priceline.com
PCLN, +0.60%
at roughly $1 per share for a total of $28 million in 1998. That investment returned a sizable sum upwards of several hundred million to GA's clients. The company still owns 6 million shares. Priceline.com, as we all know, had also been passed over many times, but it's one of the only pure-play Internet companies that generate a profit based on generally accepted accounting rules.

Ford was not an early investor in Critical Path. The recent investment was his first, which is yet another reason the deal was unique. GA has made most of its investments in the private sector. And it makes very few altogether, an average of 15 to 20 per year.

But Critical Path's funding requirement aligned with GA's style. The myriad of companies enduring crushing debt-burdens, such as bankrupt Exodus
EXDSQ
and Covad Communications
COVD
which is undergoing pre-packaged bankruptcy, might have required more financing than GA had to give. GA typically invests between $25 million and $100 million per deal and takes between 15 and 35 percent of the investment, said Ford.

Just the beginning

It was in early spring when GA became a "backroom adviser" to Critical Path, said Ford. Translation: GA said no thanks, we won't invest in you now, but we will down the road if we can clean up the balance sheet.

At the time, Critical Path had some positive and negative traits. In the first quarter of this year, the company's mainstay software licensing sales dropped 50 percent from the prior year, but its hosted messaging sales jumped 59 percent. It burned through 51 percent of its cash holdings in 12 months, but it still had $171 million in the bank. It was on track to generate $100 million in sales this year, but its $300 million in debt outstanding stood in the way of turning those sales into profits. It had potential, but its lack of credibility, underscored by the mounting shareholder lawsuits, sent investors and customers looking elsewhere.

What did GA do? It purchased $65 million in face value of Critical Path's debt in the open market at a steep discount. After buying the debt, it joined with other investors, such as Hong Kong-based Cheung Kong Limited and Hutchison Whampoa Limited, and global technology enterprise builder Vectis Group, to pour money into the company. After the deal was done, Critical Path wiped out much of its debt and was left with $30 million in new cash.

Ford, who said GA invested a total of $35 million for 20 percent of the company at $1.05 per share, did not say how much GA purchased the debt for. But it's more than 25 cents on the dollar. Assuming GA paid 40 cents on the dollar for a total of $26 million, that would mean the investor group put in roughly $56 million into the company for about 55 million in convertible preferred stock plus warrants. That investment announced, on Nov. 9, is now worth $130 million. Not bad for a few months worth of work.

But it's not over. The work is just beginning since GA typically holds its investments in companies for five years. That said, GA does own shares at $1. For investors looking at the stock now, it could be a bumpy road. A lot of distressed-debt restructurings involve buying stakes of companies through convertible debt that eventually turns into stock. A return on investment is captured through selling shares in the public market.

Short interest in Critical Path shares is on the rise just in the past month.

But Ford is keen on sticking with Critical Path. He said GA has no plans in selling its stake any time soon.

Ford's outlook on the Internet

GA has recently been buying shares in the public market of other beleaguered Internet investments. Just last week, GA, which owns 16 percent of SoundView Technology
SNDV
recently added to its position by buying some of Goldman Sachs' 11.7 million shares. Ford was an early proponent in online financial investments. He invested early in E-Offering, a joint venture between E-Trade
ET, +0.24%
and Softbank, which eventually merged with SoundView Technology. As for the prospects of Internet advertising, Ford is pretty negative. At one point, Net advertising seemed to be a mass-market phenomenon, he said. The conclusion he's reached about the opportunity: "The efficacy of Net advertising is really limited." Translation: GA's not buying Yahoo
YHOO, +0.85%
or DoubleClick
DCLK
any time soon.

I am taking the pulse of readers and Internet observers regarding Internet winners and turkeys of 2001. It could be a stock, a theme, or an outlandish prognostication. If you'd like to make an entry, e-mail Bfrancisco@marketwatch.com.

Intraday Data provided by SIX Financial Information and subject to terms of use.
Historical and current end-of-day data provided by SIX Financial Information. Intraday data
delayed per exchange requirements. S&P/Dow Jones Indices (SM) from Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
All quotes are in local exchange time. Real time last sale data provided by NASDAQ. More
information on NASDAQ traded symbols and their current financial status. Intraday
data delayed 15 minutes for Nasdaq, and 20 minutes for other exchanges. S&P/Dow Jones Indices (SM)
from Dow Jones & Company, Inc. SEHK intraday data is provided by SIX Financial Information and is
at least 60-minutes delayed. All quotes are in local exchange time.